Ehren Watada refused deployment orders to iraq because he says that the war is illegal
| QUOTE |
SITES: Was there a turning point for you when you actually decided that this was definitely an illegal war?
WATADA: Certainly. I think that when we take an oath we, as soldiers and officers, swear to protect the constitution — with our lives as necessary — and those constitutional values and laws that make us free and make us a democracy. And when we have one branch of government that intentionally deceives another branch of government in order to authorize war, and intentionally deceives the people in order to gain that public support, that is a grave breach of our constitutional values, our laws, our checks and balances, and separation of power. |
From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants. And if one branch from this tree must be trimmed in order for the others to grow stonger, then so be it.
Here's his problem:
| QUOTE |
| intentionally deceives |
No, sir, when every major intelligence agency in the world agrees with your own intelligence - that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction - then it is your job to do something about it. At the time, he was refusing inspections, thumbing his nose at 16 UN resolutions and it was believed that he had lots of terrorist contacts; on top of that, he was an exceedingly cruel dictator responsible for the countless deaths. Even worse, he is sitting on one of the world's biggest oil reserves. Therefore, that makes him a prime target.
In order to have "intentionally deceived" people, Bush would have to have known that Saddam really had disposed of most of his weapons, and there were mere shreds of evidence to support that claim. Regardless of how the war has turned out, I can't stand it when people condemn our decision to go in based solely on hindsight - if we didn't know until AFTER the fact, then it can't be used as evidence to argue against having gone in.
| QUOTE (Patriot76 @ Jan 13 2007, 04:13 PM) |
| From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants. And if one branch from this tree must be trimmed in order for the others to grow stonger, then so be it. |
As brilliant as your paraphrasing of that quote is, I have to ask: what on Earth are you talking about?
| QUOTE (Orborde @ Jan 13 2007, 11:12 PM) |
| QUOTE (Patriot76 @ Jan 13 2007, 04:13 PM) | | From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants. And if one branch from this tree must be trimmed in order for the others to grow stonger, then so be it. |
As brilliant as your paraphrasing of that quote is, I have to ask: what on Earth are you talking about?
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Well I'm guessing you already know that is a quote from thomas Jefferson meaning that our liberties must sometimes be protected with war not diplomacy. That second part about the trimming of the branches is something I added. I am just simply saying in those said times of war, the executive branch must be given, and does get, more power in order toprotect those civil liberties (sending in more troops without Congressional approval for example).